Barcelona continued their dominance in La Liga with another fine win over Sporting Gijon who are hovering just above the relegation places. Although they did look threatening on the counter, Barcelona had too much in the tank to be troubled.
The usual suspects were at it again with Messi scoring twice and Suarez sealing the win with Barcelona's third goal. As we’ve come to expect from the Ballon d’Or winner he broke more records after his brace against Gijon.
Messi’s opener was his 300th goal in La Liga. He is now the first ever player in the Spanish league to score 300 goals. And he has begun his journey to reach the next century as well after scoring his 301st and Barca’s second.
With that goal, he is now the fifth player to reach the landmark in the top 5 leagues. He is sixth on the list of all-time top scorers in terms of league goals. In terms of highest scorers in each of the five major leagues, he is fifth after Jimmy Greaves, Gerd Muller, Steve Bloomer and Dixie Dean. With the exception of Muller the other three are all English.
The little Argentine has now scored 15 goals in La Liga this season. It's the eighth consecutive time he has achieved 15 or more goals in the league. Messi’s second also meant it was Barcelona's 10,000th goal in their history. And of those 10,000 Messi has scored almost 5% since the club’s foundation in 1899.
The 28-year-old has averaged 1.2 goals per game in the last five seasons which is better than the average of at least seven teams in La Liga. There seems to be no limit to the capabilities of this great player but his teammates also chipped in with a few records of their own.
Suarez might have missed a penalty but that didn’t stop him from grabbing his 23rd in all competitions yesterday. He also assisted both of Mess’s goals which took him to 10 assists for the season. Suarez is the first player in La Liga to reach double figures in both goals and assists in 2015/16.
Neymar also reached a personal landmark after completing 96 take-ons, which is more than any player in La Liga this term. With that win, Barcelona are now 31 games unbeaten in all competitions and they have also opened up a six-point gap between themselves and Atletico Madrid in second.
The significance of that leads is that only twice have the leaders in La Liga at any instance in a season held a six-point lead and lost the title. Both those instances involved Real Madrid – in 1991-92 and 2003-04. Will Barcelona lift the trophy once more or will the Madrid clubs have something to say about it as we enter the last lap in the title race?
